Georgia Natural Wonder #106 - Savannah – Chatham Co. - Cemeteries (Part 9). 916

[Top Row Dawg]

Alright, we are winding down on Natural Wonder #106. And in sticking with the Natural Beauty and steep history, I thought today's tangent would cover the two main cemetery's of Savannah. 

COLONIAL PARK CEMETERY

The Colonial Park Cemetery, one of Savannah’s most beautiful restorations, is the final resting place for many of Savannah's earliest citizens. Established about 1750, it was the original burial ground for the Christ Church Parish.



The cemetery was enlarged in 1789 to become the cemetery for people of all denominations. Among those buried here are Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.



Grave, but no body? Signer's Monument tangent.



Names of other distinguished Savannahians buried here can be found below in the text of the historical marker below.



This cemetery, the second in colonial Savannah, was the burying ground for the city from about 1750 until it was closed against burials in 1853. Among the distinguished dead who rest here are Archibald Bulloch, first President of Georgia;





James Habersham, acting royal Governor of the Province, 1771-'73;





Joseph Habersham, Postmaster General under three Presidents;


Joseph , John, and James (Jr) Habersham



John Habersham (1754–1799), member of the Continental Congress (son of James Habersham, brother of Joseph Habersham)



James Habersham Jr. rounds out the three brothers buried with pop.


His home is now a restaurant.

Lachlan McIntosh, Major General, Continental Army;





Now I got all confused on this second historical marker at the grave of Lachlan. Thinking it was Lachlan's brother, John McIntosh, the hero of Fort Morris in the Revolutionary War, covered in Coast of Liberty County (Part 2). It turns out John is buried elsewhere.



Right next to Uncle Lachlan is John's son, Colonel James S. McIntosh, a hero of the War with Mexico. What a story, this tangent tells. The Fighting McIntosh's.



Samuel Elbert, Revolutionary soldier and Governor of Georgia;

 



Capt. Denis L. Cottineau de Kerloguen who aided John Paul Jones in the engagement between the "Bon Homme Richard" and the "Serapis";


Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis off Flamborough Head.





Hugh McCall, early historian of Georgia;





Edward Green Malbone, the noted miniaturist,


Self portrait and some of his muses. Damn these gals look good for 1797!



William Stephens, Georgia’s first Attorney-General he was also Chief Justice of Georgia, Mayor of Savannah.



Major John Berrien, 2nd lieutenant in the first Georgia Continental brigade, Collector of Customs at Savannah; alderman, and State Treasurer



Joseph Clay, Deputy Paymaster General of the Continental Army for the Southern Department.



William Scarbrough, he was the moving force in Savannah who in 1819 sent the first steamship across the Atlantic Ocean.



Can't find a tangent on him, but there is a detailed Wikipedia on his house in Savannah.



The remains of Major General Nathanael Greene who died in 1786 reposed in the cemetery's Graham vault between 1786 and 1901, at which point they were re-interred in Johnson Square. His remains had shared the vault with those of John Maitland, his arch rival in the Revolutionary War. Maitland's remains were returned to his native Scotland in 1981.



More than 700 victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried in Colonial Park Cemetery.


Yellow Fever still out there.

There are also many victims of Savannah's tragic dueling era. Savannah history records the first dueling death in 1740 and the final shot fired in 1877. Many of the duels left a number of men dead from what one source calls acts of "too much honor." Some of the duels were fought in and around Colonial Park Cemetery.



He fell in a duel on the 16th of January, 1815, by the hand of a man who, a short time ago, would have been friendless but for him. . . . By his untimely death the prop of a Mother's age is broken: The hope and consolation of Sisters is destroyed, the pride of Brothers humbled in the dust and a whole family, happy until then, overwhelmed with affliction.

From the 1815 headstone of James Wilde



The cemetery was already closed to burials before the start of the Civil War and no Confederate soldiers are buried there. But the war did leave its mark on the cemetery. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds during their occupation of Savannah and many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It has been said that Union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones.



It should come as no surprise that Colonial Park Cemetery is a popular stop for local ghost tours. One walking tour dares go through the cemetery at night.



According to one story, a maid at the old City Hotel on Bay Street was found in tears outside the gate of the cemetery. When her coworkers inquired what was wrong, she told them she had followed a young man from the hotel who walked into the cemetery and disappeared.



The Colonial Park Cemetery is also home to one of Savannah's most famous ghosts, that of "Rene Asche Rondolier" (or Renee Rondolia Asch), a disfigured orphan who was said to have called Colonial Park his home in the early 1800s. Accused of murdering two girls whose bodies were found in the cemetery, Rene was dragged to the nearby swamps and lynched and left for dead. More dead bodies turned up in the cemetery in the days that followed. The townspeople were convinced it was Rene's ghost and some still call the cemetery, Rene's playground.

The cemetery became a city park in 1896.



The cemetery was established in 1750, and by 1789 it had expanded three times to reach its current dimensions. Its previous names have been the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, and Christ Church Cemetery. It was Savannah's primary public cemetery throughout its active years. Burials ceased in the cemetery in 1853.



More information, different site, May be some Germans ~ Originally built as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish, in 1789 it became a cemetery for Savannahians of all denominations. The cemetery was closed to burials in 1853, some eight years before the start of the American Civil War, so no Confederate soldiers are buried there. After Union troops occupied Savannah on December 24, 1864, the graveyard was used to quarter some horses. Soldiers allegedly damaged or defaced some of the stone markers.


Yankee's in Georgia! Who let them in?

Colonial Park Cemetery served as Savannah’s cemetery for more than a century and contains over nine thousand graves. Established in 1750, by 1789 it had been expanded three times to reach its current size. Colonial Park Cemetery is approximately 6 acres in size and is located in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. The cemetery is open to pedestrians from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. November - March and 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. March - November, and is a popular site for local citizens and tourists. The park-like cemetery has been closed to interments since 1853 and is the oldest intact municipal cemetery in Savannah. Previously known as the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, or Christ Church Cemetery, the cemetery served as the primary public cemetery from 1750 to 1853.


DAR Patriots' Arch erected in 1913 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to memorialize the Revolutionary War Veterans buried in Colonial Park Cemetery.

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BONAVENTURE CEMETERY

Bonaventure Cemetery was developed on the historically significant site of Bonaventure Plantation. John Mullryne’s plantation, with its tree-lined avenues, once occupied this 160-acre site (though the plantation was a total of 600 acres). Mullryne was an English colonel who was granted the land in the 1760s. He named it “Bonaventure,” which is Italian for “good fortune.” Mulryne built Bonaventure Plantation (ca. 1760-1762) and constructed the third Tybee Light (ca. 1769-1773).


The Mulryne construction is still found in the base of the current Tybee Lighthouse, making it part Colonial architecture.

The Mulryne’s original home at Bonaventure was built entirely of imported British bricks, and landscaped with expansive gardens to the river, plus the now-famous Live Oak trees. Live Oaks had been selected by Mulryne for there hardiness to withstand hurricane winds. Mulryne’s plantation became a refuge of the Tories [British Loyalists] in the American Revolution.  In January 1776, Mulryne and his son-in-law Josiah Tattnall were arrested along with then-Governor Sir James Wright.  All were ordered not to assist British ships of war off the Tybee coast.  Mulryne and Tattnall were paroled on their own honor.


Memorial built on ruins of Plantation.

On the night of February 11, 1776, with the assistance of Mulryne (a member of the Royal Council), Sir James Wright escaped from the back of his house.  At the time, Wright was on house arrest by the Sons of Liberty.  He traveled by boat to Bonaventure, Mulryne’s plantation home, then through Tybee Creek where he absconded to board the British ship Scarborough man of war (around 3 a.m. on February 12), waiting in Tybee Roads.  Thereafter, the warship departed for the Bahamas. Although briefly removed from power, Wright organized a military action and retook Savannah on December 29, 1778. He then resumed office as royal governor on July 22, 1779, remaining in office until July 11, 1782, when the British abandoned Georgia for good. Wright then moved to London, where he died three years later.


Wright.

After the close of the American Revolution in 1782, Mulryne was one of 280 British Loyalists “banished from this state [Georgia] forever” and required to depart within 60 days. Mullryne escaped to the Bahamas where he died in 1786, while Tattnall went to England. The plantation was subsequently seized by the Georgia government. Mulryne’s American patriot grandson, Josiah Tattnall, Jr., purchased the plantation in 1788.  Over objections by his father and grandfather, Tattnall, Jr. had joined the army of General Nathanael Greene, following George Washington’s second in command until the close of the American Revolutionary War.



In the late 1700s, the great house at Bonaventure Plantation was destroyed by fire.  Legend has it that Tattnall, Jr., while hosting a dinner party, was surprised by fire in his plantation home. Unable to save the mansion, his servants moved the dining table onto the lawn, at his instruction.  The meal continued by the light of Bonaventure ablaze.  Frommer’s Portable Guide writes, “At the end the host and the guests threw their crystal glasses against the trunk of an old oak tree. It is said on still nights you can hear laughter and the sounds of crashing crystal.”


Going to leave this oversized image in here, really descriptive map both Cemetery origins.

Bonaventure is among Georgia’s oldest plantations that include Wormsloe (now a Georgia State Park and Historic Site) and Greenwich.The peaceful setting rests on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. Peter Wiltberger purchased Bonaventure in 1846, and his son William, turned it into Evergreen Cemetery 22 years later.The site became a public cemetery in 1907. This charming site has been a world famous tourist destination for more than 150 years due to the old tree-lined roadways,



Trees among the graves



The many notable persons interred,



The unique cemetery sculpture and architecture,



And the folklore associated with the site and the people. Legends include statues that move or smile and a pack of otherworldly hounds.



Among the notable sculptures,


Theus tomb


Baldwin Tomb.


Lawton Grave.

The entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road and is the largest of the municipal cemeteries containing nearly 160 acres. The cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.





The main office of the Department of Cemeteries is located in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance of the cemetery.



In 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery and changed its name to Bonaventure Cemetery. The cemetery became the fourth installment of the five cemeteries the city currently owns. Since then, it has expanded from the original 60 acres to nearly 103 acres.



The cemetery was originally designed as a traditional Victorian cemetery with curving pathways, lots of trees and grassy areas. Although a cemetery, it was common for families to meet and picnic here while still providing a place of comfort and solace for the bereaved friends of relatives of those buried there.



The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. Relax on one of Bonaventure’s many benches overlooking the river. Fans of the book looking for the graves of murdered Danny Hansford, or the accused Jim Williams, should not waste their time looking in Bonaventure. Danny Is buried in Greenwich Cemetery just down the road. Jim was buried in far away Wilkinson county next to his mother. The iconic “Bird Girl” from the front cover of “The Book” cannot also not be found at Bonaventure Cemetery. Visitors to Savannah looking for her will find her on display at the Jepson Center for the Arts, downtown.



The entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate "Gaston's Tomb".



History

The cemetery is located on the site of a plantation originally owned by John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall, III., sold the 600-acre Bonaventure Plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger.



Major William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. He was promoted Major of the Fifth Regiment of Georgia Cavalry on the 26th of July, 1864.



On July 7, 1907 the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery.



In 1867 John Muir began his Thousand Mile Walk to Florida and the Gulf. In October he sojourned for six days and nights in the Bonaventure cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home.



He found the cemetery even then breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, "Camping in the Tombs."

    "Part of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak (Quercus virginiana), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins.

    The most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos.

    But of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive.



    There are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone.

    Bonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure.



    I gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light."

    - "Camping in the Tombs," from A Thousand Mile Walk



Notable burials

Samuel Barnard Adams, interim Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.



Conrad Aiken, novelist and poet.





Robert Houstoun Anderson (1835-1888), 2nd Lieutenant US Army, General CSA Army, Chief of Police City of Savannah



Middleton Barnwell, bishop



Edythe Chapman, Actress in 115 films, only a few of them were sound films: "A Mormon Maid," (silent), "Tom Sawyer (silent), "Huckleberry Finn" (silent), "The Ten Commandments" (silent), "The King of Kings" (silent) and "The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg" (silent).



Jack Leigh, photographer, author



Hugh W. Mercer, Civil War Army officer and Confederate general



Johnny Mercer, singer/songwriter





James Neill, actor



John Allen Croskeys Royall (1860–1959), president, New England Oil Company



Marie Louise Scudder-Myrick (1854-1934), First Female Owner, Editor, Publisher of a Southern US Newspaper (1895), The Americus Times-Recorder.



Josiah Tattnall, Jr. (1765-1803), Senator, General, and Georgia Governor





Josiah Tattnall, III. (1795-1871), Commodore USN, Captain CSA Navy



Edward Telfair, governor





F. Bland Tucker, Episcopal minister and hymn writer



John Walz (1844-1922), sculptor



Gracie Watson, famous statue at her gravesite, 6 years old

Gracie Watson – Section E, Plot 98

A cemetery as old and beautiful as Bonaventure has plenty of other real-life characters whose final resting places you can visit. One of the most visited graves in the cemetery is that of “Little Gracie” Watson, who has been drawing visitors for over a hundred years. Born in Boston in 1883, Gracie moved to Savannah with her parents when her father landed the position of manager at the prestigious Pulaski Hotel. One of the finest hotels in the South, Gracie quickly became the center of attention, entertaining guests at the Pulaski with charm, songs and dancing. The little celebrity became ill with pneumonia, and died two days before Easter of 1889.



If you decide to visit her grave site in Bonaventure Cemetery, you’ll find a haunting, life-sized sculpture of Gracie. Commissioned from a photograph, the statue is rumored to be a remarkable likeness of the girl. Gracie was left behind in Savannah, alone in death.Visitors leave tokens of sympathy, and according to legend her eyes will cry tears of blood if the gifts are ever removed.

Claudius Charles Wilson (1831–1863), Civil War Confederate brigadier General



Rosa Louise Woodberry (1869–1932), journalist, educator



Bartholomew Zouberbuhler (1719–1766), early Presbyterian minister. He was ordained minister of Christ Church in 1745 and remained at that post for twenty-one years. He secured a teacher for Black slaves in 1751.



GREENWICH CEMETERY

A Top Row Dawg tangent, (Hell it's all a tangent), let's dip into the sister Plantation of Bonaventure and add Greenwich Plantation and Cemetery. Within walking distance from Bonaventure, is Greenwich Cemetery, the “youngest” of Savannah’s municipal cemeteries. Smaller than Bonaventure, at 65 acres, and not as well known as other Savannah cemeteries, Greenwich is usually much less crowded, and feels more relaxing. You will see the same protective, moss draped oaks found at Bonaventure, and enjoy the cooling breezes from Greenwich’s Wilmington River frontage.



Greenwich Cemetery provides the same peaceful setting as her more famous sister, and has secrets of her own to share. The cemetery was established in 1933 on the former site of Greenwich Plantation as the Greenwich Addition to Bonaventure. The plantation was created by combining farm lots, which were King’s grants from King George II of England. Discussions of Greenwich Plantation inevitably compare it in size and opulence to North Carolina’s Biltmore House in Asheville. Had the mansion survived the fire that destroyed it in 1923, it surely would be an attraction to rival the Vanderbilt’s home today.



Picturesque lawns and gardens had on display, ornate statues, fountains and exotic plants, to impress visitors and delight the plantation’s owners.
Views of the river and surrounding marshland, as well as a central, grandiose white-marble fountain, lead people of the day to consider it one of the South’s most outstanding privately owned estates.



Not much evidence remains of Greenwich Plantation, but you can still find a few of the fountains and statues if you look hard enough.

Rudolph Valentino’s Movie

You can get a glimpse of the Greenwich Plantation’s former glory if you watch the movie Stolen Moments, which was filmed there in 1920, just three years before the fire. Featuring Rudolph Valentino in his final role playing a villain, the silent film was set in the mansion and on it’s grounds.


Scenes and shots from Stolen Moments featuring Greenwich Plantation.

Danny Hansford’s grave – Section 8, Row G

When your quiet moment of reflection passes, continued exploration of Greenwich Cemetery might yield discovery of the grave of the site’s most famous resident. Though his character, played by Jude Law in the film version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was renamed Billy Hanson, his actual name was Danny Hansford. Danny was shot to death in the study of Mercer House on Monterrey Square by Jim Williams. Supposedly Savannah’s most popular male escort in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, his death led to a bestselling novel. What really happened that night in 1981 only he and Jim Williams will ever know.



Walking up to the simple headstone set in to the grass, you may find a previous visitor has left a cigarette or a drink for Danny.

Since we are kinda creepy covering dead folks from Savannah all today, for our GNW Gal, let's reprise our favorite Dead Savannah.......